Aircraft vary widely both in the altitudes at which they fly and in their weights. For example, commercial airliners (e.g., manufactured by Boeing or Airbus) may weigh as much as hundreds of metric tons and may have a cruising altitude in the range of 30,000-40,000 ft. In contrast, the small unmanned aerial system (UAS) category of drones (which the FAA is currently drafting rules for) weigh in the range of 4.4-55 pounds and current FAA draft rules propose limiting such drones to a maximum altitude of 500 feet above ground level.
All types of aircraft, including drones, occasionally need to perform emergency landings. New emergency landing solutions may be developed for drones which were never developed for other types of aircraft because of the differences in altitude, differences in weight, etc. Such emergency landing solutions would be useful because they may prevent damage to the drone in the event of an emergency landing and/or to any pilots or passengers on board the drone. Naturally, such emergency landing solutions are not necessarily limited to drones and may be applicable to other, similar types of aircraft (e.g., lighter-weight, flying at lower altitudes, etc.).